There are many scenarios in which a wireless device may frequently send messages to another wireless device to indicate a changing preference for a particular configuration for a connection between the wireless devices. One such scenario is within the context of a work item on enhancements for Diverse Data Applications (eDDA) in 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Radio Access Network (RAN) Work Group 2 (WG2), which is referred to as 3GPP RAN2.
Efficient power consumption is one of the important characteristics of a wireless device (e.g., a User Equipment (UE), which is sometimes referred to as a user element) in a cellular communications network. In today's digital world, wireless devices tend to be always “connected” to the cellular communications network especially due to the popularity of social networking applications. These applications are usually delay-tolerant as opposed to other applications, such as video telephony or web browsing, that have traffic with delay-sensitive characteristics. Social networking applications generate intermittent packet transmissions that are usually small in size yet invoke procedures which prompt relatively high energy consumption. Hence, social networking applications may cause an inconvenient user experience due to the need to frequently recharge the battery of the wireless device (i.e., more than once per day).
3GPP has been developing the specifications on the Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN), which includes Long Term Evolution (LTE) concepts. In RAN2, a Work Item (WI) on eDDA has been created in LTE Release 11 (Rel-11) to identify and specify mechanisms that can enhance the ability of LTE to handle diverse traffic profiles such as those of social networking applications. The objective of this WI is to identify improvements that can increase the network efficiency, extend UE battery lifetime, reduce signaling overhead, and enhance user experience and system performance under such traffic loads.
One of the focus areas is to change the UE behavior to reduce the power consumption of the UE when possible. In previous releases of the LTE specifications, timers were introduced to enable switching from CONNECTED to IDLE mode once the timers expire and when there is no data to send. Further, a Discontinuous Reception (DRX) mode was introduced for LTE in 3GPP standards to conserve battery power when the UE remains in CONNECTED mode. There is a wide range of configuration sets available for the DRX parameters which can be utilized for different types of services, e.g., Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), gaming, web browsing, and video telephony. DRX configuration is set by a base station, or eNodeB (eNB). However, there may be scenarios in which the UE has information that is not available at the base station that may be beneficial when setting the DRX configuration for the UE. As such, there is a need for systems and methods for signaling such information from the UE to the base station.